FAX bus crashes at busy in­ter­sec­tion

A FAX bus was in­volved in a col­li­sion with four other ve­hi­cles at Cedar and Al­lu­vial av­enues in north­east Fresno on Thurs­day, snarling rush­hour traf­fic dur­ing the evening com­mute.

The bus was headed south on Cedar when the driver got dis­tracted talk­ing to a pas­sen­ger and ran a red light, said Fresno po­lice Lt. Larry Bow­man.

The bus first hit an SUV go­ing east on Al­lu­vial, and the col­li­sion sent both into the me­dian and the north­bound lanes of Cedar, hit­ting three ve­hi­cles, two more SUVs and a car, that were wait­ing at the red light.

There were two adult pas­sen­gers and two chil­dren both, ap­prox­i­mately age 12, in the bus.

One of the 12-year-olds and one of the adult pas­sen­gers along with the driver of one of the car, a silver Honda, were taken to hos­pi­tals due to com­plaints of pain.

An air bag de­ployed in one of the ve­hi­cles and that likely pre­vented a fa­tal­ity, Bow­man said.

The po­lice depart­ment’s ac­ci­dent re­con­struc­tion team is in­ves­ti­gat­ing.